Business & Finance Perspectives

The Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act was passed into law on April 5, 2012. It encourages private companies to complete IPO’s by giving them reporting relief if they qualify as an emerging growth company (EGC). EGCs have less than $1 billion in revenue and $700 million in publicly traded stock. A previous blog warned about this legislation eliminating the Sarbanes Oxley requirement of an auditor’s report on a company’s internal control over financial reporting. However, the Act does require management to report on such internal control. Nevertheless, it is now more likely that EGCs will have errors or issues with their financial statements heading into a public offering.
This was the case in 2011, when the SEC examined Groupon’s financial statements heading into its November IPO. Groupon had already revised its financials twice before that date because of the SEC’s scrutiny, and is revising them again due to inadequate reserves for customer refunds. This news prompted a sell off and drop in share price from $20 to $15.27. AuditAnalytics.com recently conducted a study of companies with SOX issues since 2004, when the SOX requirement for internal control took effect. They identified 104 companies with SOX issues who would have been exempt from auditor scrutiny if the JOBS Act had been in effect at that time. For more information on the JOBS Act see the April 2012 edition of BDO Knows: The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act.